un-activated TB

[Reiryc]

This past weekend was my first time geocaching. Had a lot of fun doing it!

 

I found a travel bug in a cache. Brought it home, searched for the number and it came up that it wasn't activated. The travel bug number had a 0 (zero) in it. So I thought maybe it might an o instead. When I used the o instead of the 0, it asked me to register the bug.

 

My conclusion is that the number is registered but not activated. The item is a tiny souvenir travel mug that says seattle on it. I'm assuming that's where it came from. I found it in wichita kansas. So my assumption is that it made it this far but of course this is just a guess.

 

My question to all of you is: What should I do?

 

I don't know how to find the original owner but if you folks do then I'm willing to try. I checked the stickied posts and while I won't say I read every single post up there I did try to be pretty thorough to see what to do in this situation, but I couldn't find anything. I also checked the faq on the travel bug page.

 

thanks for any and all replies

[+SirDonB]

The only thing you might be able to do is to look at the logs of the cache you found it in and see if anyone says they dropped off a TB recently, contact them and see if they know where they got it. Then you can keep repeating this process till you either go as far as you can or find the owner.

 

Other than that, I dont know what else can be done.

[+Seaglass Pirates]

Bare in mind as well that they may well be on holiday ... Still and for a few weeks yet. So may not have logged their visit online yet. Our folks have this with a cache they own. Tbs get removed but not logged out for a couple of months until the Americans are back. It's usually Americans in this caches case because they visit this very popular place and continue around the UK for a couple of weeks and then do the same around Europe before returning home. Have to say as well it's usually Americans who go into the gift shop and stuff the cache full of new swaps.

[+Kacher82]

Are there any other letters/numbers in the code that could be confused? 0/O is one, but there is also 1/I, for one. The 0/O could also possibly be a Q.

I'm not sure if the search is case-sensitive or not, but you could try typing all the letters as capitals, if you haven't already.

[+NanCycle]

Are there any other letters/numbers in the code that could be confused? 0/O is one, but there is also 1/I, for one. The 0/O could also possibly be a Q.

I'm not sure if the search is case-sensitive or not, but you could try typing all the letters as capitals, if you haven't already.

 

It's not case sensitive, but also consider B vs 8, Z vs 2.

[+ngrrfan]

This past weekend was my first time geocaching. Had a lot of fun doing it!

 

I found a travel bug in a cache. Brought it home, searched for the number and it came up that it wasn't activated. The travel bug number had a 0 (zero) in it. So I thought maybe it might an o instead. When I used the o instead of the 0, it asked me to register the bug.

 

My conclusion is that the number is registered but not activated. The item is a tiny souvenir travel mug that says seattle on it. I'm assuming that's where it came from. I found it in wichita kansas. So my assumption is that it made it this far but of course this is just a guess.

 

My question to all of you is: What should I do?

 

I don't know how to find the original owner but if you folks do then I'm willing to try. I checked the stickied posts and while I won't say I read every single post up there I did try to be pretty thorough to see what to do in this situation, but I couldn't find anything. I also checked the faq on the travel bug page.

 

thanks for any and all replies

Travel bugs do not use the letter "O". Some geocoins do but those usually start the tracking number, not in the midst of it.

Use the 0 (zero) to look for it. Does it say "Trackable at geocaching.com" on it?

[Reiryc]

This past weekend was my first time geocaching. Had a lot of fun doing it!

 

I found a travel bug in a cache. Brought it home, searched for the number and it came up that it wasn't activated. The travel bug number had a 0 (zero) in it. So I thought maybe it might an o instead. When I used the o instead of the 0, it asked me to register the bug.

 

My conclusion is that the number is registered but not activated. The item is a tiny souvenir travel mug that says seattle on it. I'm assuming that's where it came from. I found it in wichita kansas. So my assumption is that it made it this far but of course this is just a guess.

 

My question to all of you is: What should I do?

 

I don't know how to find the original owner but if you folks do then I'm willing to try. I checked the stickied posts and while I won't say I read every single post up there I did try to be pretty thorough to see what to do in this situation, but I couldn't find anything. I also checked the faq on the travel bug page.

 

thanks for any and all replies

Travel bugs do not use the letter "O". Some geocoins do but those usually start the tracking number, not in the midst of it.

Use the 0 (zero) to look for it. Does it say "Trackable at geocaching.com" on it?

 

thanks all for the replies.

 

The keychain tag says the travel bug with a picture of a bug and the code on one side and on the other it says I am a travel bug. help me travel from cache to cache. visit www.travelbugs.com to learn about me and how to help me on my next adventure.

 

I went to that address which of course forwards me back to geocaching.com to search for it.

 

replies to other posts:

 

There is only 1 character that can be mistaken in the code---the 0 (zero). Since someone else posted that there are no o's, then that isn't an issue.

 

I checked the log book of the cache when I decided to take the bug. I looked to see if anyone had written anything about dropping off the bug/mug souvenir. I didn't see anything. I checked the online log and also nothing. I did see a couple others that were taken but nothing about the one I grabbed.

 

 

Is there a "standard" wait time that I should wait before activating this bug and sending it out in the world again?

[+TheHarleyRebel]

This past weekend was my first time geocaching. Had a lot of fun doing it!

 

I found a travel bug in a cache. Brought it home, searched for the number and it came up that it wasn't activated. The travel bug number had a 0 (zero) in it. So I thought maybe it might an o instead. When I used the o instead of the 0, it asked me to register the bug.

 

My conclusion is that the number is registered but not activated. The item is a tiny souvenir travel mug that says seattle on it. I'm assuming that's where it came from. I found it in wichita kansas. So my assumption is that it made it this far but of course this is just a guess.

 

My question to all of you is: What should I do?

 

I don't know how to find the original owner but if you folks do then I'm willing to try. I checked the stickied posts and while I won't say I read every single post up there I did try to be pretty thorough to see what to do in this situation, but I couldn't find anything. I also checked the faq on the travel bug page.

 

thanks for any and all replies

Travel bugs do not use the letter "O". Some geocoins do but those usually start the tracking number, not in the midst of it.

Use the 0 (zero) to look for it. Does it say "Trackable at geocaching.com" on it?

 

thanks all for the replies.

 

The keychain tag says the travel bug with a picture of a bug and the code on one side and on the other it says I am a travel bug. help me travel from cache to cache. visit www.travelbugs.com to learn about me and how to help me on my next adventure.

 

I went to that address which of course forwards me back to geocaching.com to search for it.

 

replies to other posts:

 

There is only 1 character that can be mistaken in the code---the 0 (zero). Since someone else posted that there are no o's, then that isn't an issue.

 

I checked the log book of the cache when I decided to take the bug. I looked to see if anyone had written anything about dropping off the bug/mug souvenir. I didn't see anything. I checked the online log and also nothing. I did see a couple others that were taken but nothing about the one I grabbed.

 

 

Is there a "standard" wait time that I should wait before activating this bug and sending it out in the world again?

 

I would just wait, but don't place it in another cache if it is unactivated.

[+The Blorenges]

If a TB is dropped off into a cache it usually gets picked up fairly quickly, so if this was my situation I'd send an email to the last two or three cachers who were at the cache and ask them whether they dropped off the TB. If they know nothing about it (or fail to reply) I'd keep it for two or three weeks just to see whether it gets activated late - maybe the owner has a note of the tracking code and activation code at home but for some reason they forgot to do the activation before dropping it into the cache? (Fairly unlikely, but possible.)

 

If the situation isn't resolved after the waiting time then I'd go ahead and activate it myself. You will have made a good attempt to sort it out by double checking the tracking number details and trying to find out who might have dropped it - there's nothing else you can do.

 

MrsB